Funny... more and more this seems like a game show instead of an electoral campaign. Amazing how show business, the most superficial of cultures, shows it's face in politics, ostensibly the transmutation of the best of culture into government...

"But there are still a few things about each other that are going
to take some getting used to, things that even Kerry's hyperefficient
team of more than 100 lawyers and vetters missed-- like the fact that
Edwards has something of a substance abuse problem, Tumulty reports.
"You ask me what I've learned [about Edwards]?" Kerry said. "This man
drinks a lot of Diet Coke." The North Carolinian who would be a
caffeine-and-sodium-buzzed heartbeat away from the presidency
subsequently admitted that "on a good day" he has been known to open
four before noon, at which point Kerry pronounced himself stunned,
seized the can from Edwards and started reading the nutrition label
aloud. "Sodium, 2%. Protein, John, zero," he called as Edwards
scrambled for the door. As for himself, Kerry owned up: "When I drink
Coke, I have to drink the real thing, because of the sugar in it.""

Recent news indicates John Edwards has given up Diet Coke since early March.

Four months is plenty of time to almost completely recover from Rumsfeld 's
Disease.

What a wonderful opportunity he has to share his own experience and the
advice of his trusted medical experts with the world public.

This would give opportunity for safe, inexpensive, easy, fast, permanent
relief and recovery for countless and uncounted thousands of people who have
been struggling for years with complex, intractable, mysterious, painful,
multiple, expensive, worsening symptoms.

All they need is this little hint: if you are a heavy user of aspartame and
MSG, just try giving it up.

Craving is a symptom -- de facto evidence of addiction.

Splenda (sucralose) is much safer. Stevia is not only totally safe; it
treats high blood pressure and diabetes.

I've been a volunteer aspartame activist on the Net since Jan 1999. By May,
I nervously dared to post "danger to Clinton from ideosyncratic toxic
reaction from aspartame in diet soda 5.6.99", and phoned to talk to a staff
member at the White House clinic. You are welcome to see if you are any
better at sparking any interest:

So, I showed up early here in Santa Fe at the La Familia Medical Clinic to
join a crowd of about 110 about 4:30 PM Thursday Dec 4 to meet NC Senator
John Edwards. I had prepared a two-page review of recent research on
aspartame. Sitting in the front row, I was soon welcomed by Attorney
General Patricia Madrid, petite, dynamic, smartly dressed. As soon as she
glanced at my review, she spun around, exclaiming, "I gave that shit up
years ago!"

Edwards showed up about 6 PM, and, 20 feet away, gave a lively speech.
Soon, it was time for questions, and after the first few, I was picked.
Standing up, I looked at him, speaking to the room:

"Sir, you may have heard about aspartame, NutraSweet, Equal, the blue
packets, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi. Well, it's 11% methanol, wood alcohol,
which is released into the body and soon turned into formaldehyde and formic

acid, which accumulate. Anyone who drinks over 6 cans daily for a year is
likely to have many symptoms, headache, fatigue, irritability, bad memory,
insomnia, aching joints, and worse. It should never have been approved.
Donald Rumsfeld was the CEO of Searle Company after 1977 who manipulated the
FDA approval of aspartame in 1981. This should be part of the public debate
this year. Well, that's that."

I sat down. Edwards paused, then moved on to the next person. Afterwards,
I immediately went to him, and pleaded, "Sir, please exercise due diligence
about aspartame!" I gave my review to his aide, who was holding a can of
Diet Coke.
As usual, most people hadn't heard of the issue, and a few had become
aspartame abstainers. A few wanted to know if there were any safe
alternatives, such as Splenda (sucralose)-- I always say it isn't perfect,
but must be a thousand times safer than Expiretame.

Well, Sunday Feb 1 at a private home in Santa Fe, near our small airport, I
attended a pre-election affair of about two dozen to hear Elizabeth Edwards.
She spoke with conviction for her husband. I had handed out my new two-page
review to a few people, and found that my little speech on Dec 4 had been
videotaped, and shown on public access TV, cable channel 8.

She was easy to talk to directly. I said I was the one who had warned John
about aspartame, and wanted to talk to the real boss of the family. She
nodded and said, yes, we've been trying to get him off that, and he's cut it
back in half and drinking distilled water.

Saturday, July 10, 5:30 to 9 PM, I attended an oudoor rally of about 10,000
in Albuquerque for John Kerry, John Edwards, and their wives. I had spent
from 11 PM to 3 AM composing yet another 2-page review to hand out.

I had been a Dean supporter a year before, and was surprised and delighted
to resonate with feelings of hope, happiness, enthusiasm, trust, and
affection for all four. We were supplied with unlimited quantities of
bottled spring water.

A very detailed, highly credible account of the dubious approval process for
aspartame in July, 1981 is part of the just released two-hour documentary
"Sweet Misery, A Poisoned World: An Industry Case Study of a Food Supply
In Crisis" by Cori Brackett: cori@soundandfuryproductions.comhttp://www.soundandfuryproductions.com/ 520-624-9710
2301 East Broadway, Suite 111 Tucson, AZ 85719

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/935
Comet assay finds DNA damage from sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin in
mice: Sasaki YF & Tsuda S Aug 2002: Murray 2003.01.01 rmforall
[ Also borderline evidence, in this pilot study of 39 food additives,
using test groups of 4 mice, for DNA damage from for stomach, colon,
liver, bladder, and lung 3 hr after oral dose of 2000 mg/kg aspartame--
a very high dose. Methanol is the only component of aspartame that can lead
to DNA damage. ]

This study demonstrated that chronic aspartame consumption in rats can lead
to altered T-maze performance and increased muscarinic cholinergic receptor
densities in certain brain regions.
Control and treated rats were trained in a T-maze to a particular side and
then periodically tested to see how well they retained the learned response.
Rats that had received aspartame (250 mg/kg/day) in the drinking water for 3
or 4 months showed a significant increase in time to reach the reward in the
T-maze, suggesting a possible effect on memory due to the artificial
sweetener.
Using [(3)H]quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) (1 nM) to label muscarinic
cholinergic receptors and atropine (10(-6) M) to determine nonspecific
binding in whole-brain preparations,
aspartame-treated rats showed a 31% increase in receptor numbers when
compared to controls.
In aspartame-treated rats, there was a significant increase in muscarinic
receptor densities in the
frontal cortex, midcortex, posterior cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus and
cerebellum of 80%, 60%, 61%, 65%, 66% and 60%, respectively.
The midbrain was the only area where preparations from aspartame-treated
rats showed a significant increase in Na(+),K(+)-ATPase activity.
It can be concluded from these data that long-term consumption of aspartame
can affect T-maze performance in rats and alter receptor densities or
enzymes in brain. PMID: 15159141
**************************************************************

As John Kerry Chooses John Edwards as his Running Mate, TIME Asks
if They Can Defeat Bush?

John Edwards: "We need a President who will lead the world, not
bully it."

John Kerry: "I intend to be a President who is on top of what's
happening in every regard."

Michael Moore: "You can't declare war on a noun."

Paul Kirchhof, Former Judge at Germany's Federal Constitutional
Court: "If we change the tax system, we'll strike a liberating
blow for the economy."

In this week's issue, on newsstands across Europe from Monday,
TIME Europe examines the contenders who are hoping to defeat Bush in
this year's Presidential elections. TIME looks at John Edwards and
discovers that in his choice of running mate, Kerry made the gamble
that a fresh face would electrify the campaign. TIME examines the
reasons behind Kerry's choice and takes an inside look at the team's
battle plan to win the election's key voters.

In his choice of running mate, John Kerry was giving his Senate
colleague Joe Biden more serious consideration than even his top
aides suspected, reports TIME. Only Jim Johnson, the Washington hand
Kerry picked to run his VP search, campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill
and scheduler Alyssa Mastromonaco, who was charged with the
under-the-radar logistics, ever really knew which potential running
mates Kerry was talking to or when.

Mastromonaco arranged Kerry's secret meeting with Iowa Governor
Tom Vilsack in San Francisco, but Dick Gephardt blew his cover when
reporters caught him sneaking into Kerry's hideaway office in the
Capitol. Kerry insisted on seeing them alone, or sometimes with his
wife. About once every 10 days or so, Johnson would deliver to Kerry
a fat accordion file of background memos, speeches the various
candidates had made and videos of their performances. Kerry would
send them back, asking for more information, though those closest to
the process were struck that he seemed to need less on Edwards,
Gephardt, Bob Graham and Wesley Clark. "He knew more about the people
he had run against," says one adviser. "Thirty debates -- you learn a
lot."

But there are still a few things about each other that are going
to take some getting used to, things that even Kerry's hyperefficient
team of more than 100 lawyers and vetters missed-- like the fact that
Edwards has something of a substance abuse problem, Tumulty reports.
"You ask me what I've learned [about Edwards]?" Kerry said. "This man
drinks a lot of Diet Coke." The North Carolinian who would be a
caffeine-and-sodium-buzzed heartbeat away from the presidency
subsequently admitted that "on a good day" he has been known to open
four before noon, at which point Kerry pronounced himself stunned,
seized the can from Edwards and started reading the nutrition label
aloud. "Sodium, 2%. Protein, John, zero," he called as Edwards
scrambled for the door. As for himself, Kerry owned up: "When I drink
Coke, I have to drink the real thing, because of the sugar in it."

Kerry seized the chance to contrast his pick with Bush's, telling
TIME in an interview on Friday he plans to give Vice President
Edwards "a very powerful position, properly utilized. I don't think
it has been properly utilized in this Administration. I think it's
been excessive, and I intend to be a President who is on top of
what's happening in every regard. On final decisions, I'm not going
to be pushed into them the way I sense this President was."

Though they had spent more than a year trying to convince
Democratic primary voters that they were two very different species
of politician, it won't be so hard to meld their positions on the
issues, which were never all that far apart to start with. But on
such touchstone matters as the death penalty-- which Edwards supports,
but Kerry opposes for everyone except terrorists-- Kerry told TIME: "I
wouldn't ask John to change on something as fundamental as that, and
I don't ask him to change. I think there's a phoniness to the
politics of people who on matters of conscience and matters of
deep-rooted belief change." The last time a presidential nominee
tapped one of his former rivals to be his running mate, Kerry noted,
"I watched George Herbert Walker Bush in one day go from pro-choice
to pro-life. Uh-uh-not this team."

Also in this week's issue of TIME Europe:

ESCAPE FROM TAX HELL: Are smarter, lower taxes the ticket to
renewed economic growth? TIME Europe discovers that some European
countries are actually trying to find out as pressure is growing to
rethink tax policy to restore vitality to Europe's lackluster
economy. In large and small ways, the heavily bureaucratic tax
systems in place in most of the Continent are coming under attack-and
even governments with the biggest budgetary constraints are being
forced to respond. Europe's governments are taking a hard look at how
to fix their tax mess, and as the debate takes off across Europe,
TIME Europe looks at how smarter taxes, better budgets and cutting
waste, fraud and abuse may make it possible to make a difference
without tipping even further into the red.

The Austrian parliament in May approved government plans to slash
corporate taxes from 34% to 25%, beginning next year. Belgium last
year cut its corporate-tax rate to 34% from 40%. Firms operating in
Estonia now pay zero tax on profits they reinvest inside the country.
In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is promising ¤12.5 billion
in income-tax relief, although the Governor of the Bank of Italy says
the country can't afford it. And even reluctant Germany made a small
cut in income tax this year as part of a package of measures agreed
in 2003, reports TIME Europe.

The calls for tax cuts are likely to increase as the European
economy gains strength as in some places, there's a ground swell of
anger about high taxes and wasteful spending. Tax is suddenly high on
every European government's agenda, whether they like it or not.
France, Germany and some other nations are calling for a
"harmonization" of E.U., taxes-in other words, raising everyone else
closer to their higher levels. "If we change the tax system, we'll
strike a liberating blow for the economy," Paul Kirchhof, a former
judge at Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, tells TIME.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MICHAEL: Taking aim at George W. Bush, TIME
Europe examines Michael Moore, a populist agitator who makes noise,
news and a new kind of political entertainment. Fahrenheit 9/11, the
highest grossing documentary of all time, has now become the most
hotly debated political film since Oliver Stone's JFK 13 years ago.
But whereas JFK merely spun conspiracy theories about a dead American
President, Fahrenheit 9/11 goes after a sitting one with the explicit
goals of unmasking his supposed crimes and removing him from office.
"You can't declare war on a noun," says Moore.

But to become a blockbuster and a shaping force in the U.S.
Presidential campaign, Fahrenheit 9/11 will have to entice the
curious, the hostile, the indifferent, says TIME. Moore is doing what
he does best-pestering-to get people into the theatres. And then to
the polls. "I don't like the film being reduced to Bush vs. Kerry.
The issues in it are larger than that... When Clinton was President,
I went after him. And if Kerry's President, on Day Two I'll be after
him," says Moore.

The full stories are available in the 19 July issue of TIME
Europe, on newsstands across Europe from Monday 12 July and at
www.timeeurope.com TIME magazine is available to readers worldwide
in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, Asia, South Pacific, Canada, Latin America
and the U.S. Each issue offers readers access to TIME's global
resources with regional, relevant stories. TIME is Europe's leading
weekly newsmagazine, with a circulation of almost 555,000 across EMEA
and more than 290,000 in Asia. Founded in 1923, TIME's worldwide
circulation is 5.2 million.

How do I send my press release to na europe?
The fastest and most reliable way of doing this is via our Internet Order
Form. You can also send us your text by e-mail to info@naeurope.co.uk or by
fax to +44 (0)20 7963 7944.
What other details must I specify?
Always be sure to specify the following two details on each ots message.
Firstly, the name of the author. Secondly, the person responsible for
answering any queries posed by the editorial staff. All you have to do then
is to choose a circulation package and the time of circulation. We will take
care of the rest ...

TIME unearths: "The North Carolinian who would be a
caffeine-and-sodium-buzzed heartbeat away from the presidency subsequently
admitted that 'on a good day' he has been known to open four before noon, at
which point Kerry pronounced himself stunned, seized the can from Edwards
and started reading the nutrition label aloud. 'Sodium, 2%. Protein, John,
zero,' he called as Edwards scrambled for the door. As for himself, Kerry
owned up: 'When I drink Coke, I have to drink the real thing, because of the
sugar in it.'"

Not to be outdone by at least nine joint interviews Kerry and Edwards have
conducted in the past few days with newspapers, news services and magazines,
all embargoed for a Sunday release that would coincide with the pair's
appearance on 60 MINUTES, editors at TIME snag the quote of the week:

"This man drinks a lot of Diet Coke," Kerry whispers to TIME, in its cover
story set for maximum Monday impact.

Developing...

-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warranthttp://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2004
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
***************************************************************

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